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Bronco/Tech4Kids
As part of a range of toys by Tech4Kids, Bronco was selected as one of at least four robots to be made into a toy and is designed to look like a puzzle with two types of pieces that interlock together. The pieces that make up the back "forks" are a more rubbery material that are also somewhat flexible and fit somewhat snuggly when in their proper places. The armor pieces are a more hard plastic but unlike the Tombstone toy, this toy has a separate piece of plastic that fits into the hole that houses the kill switch underneath the armor. This replica of Bronco is based on its Season 1 design but lacks the wheel guards on the sides. Like the other Teck4Kids BattleBots toys, the toy is powered via remote control using the four main buttons on the front for steering and the two buttons on the top for the weapon but only the back two wheels are powered by motors. The two wheeels up front are free moving. There is also a tiny wheel in the center of the toy for balance but it does not actually pivot in place. Instead, it acts much like the two wheels up front and simply rolls manually, unless the toy is moving via the remote. Unlike the Beta HEXBUG RC toy, both buttons at the top of the remote simply causes the flipper to lift a few inches, then reset, thus giving the user no control as to the weapon's strength. Additionally, Bronco has a kill switch located at the bottom-left corner of the toy that not only disables the toy when hit but causes the armor panels on that side to pop off and turns on a red light on top of the toy. This toy is also available as a 2-pack with Tombstone. BroncoTech4Kids.jpg|The prototype of the toy out of its packaging. BroncoTech4KidsBox.jpg|The mock packaging of the single toy. BroncoTeck4KidsBoxBack.jpg|The back of the mock packaging showing how the toy works and is assembled. Tech4KidsBroncoTombstone2PackBoxFront.jpg|The front of the two-pack's box. BroncoTech4KidsFinishedProduct.jpg|The fully assembled toy out of its packaging. BroncoTech4KidsBrokenApart.jpg|The finished toy broken aprt to show the pieces to be assembled. Differences from Real Life 1. The front wheels do not touch the ground. 2. For safety reasons, the weapon is much less powerful; it cannot flip any of the other toys over. 3. The flipper retracts automatically. 4. There are no side wheel guards (as seen on the ABC Season 1 version). 5. The flipper sits just off the floor. 6. The wheels are much thinner. Differences from the Prototype 1. The design for the wheels, kill switch and removable panels is different with the prototype, with the removable panels now being a mixture of puzzle piece-like panels and flat plastic-like panels. Possible Robots for Remodelling As a flipper robot, Bronco is capable of being converted into just about any flipper robot from more recent times or back in the Comedy Central days and here's a few possibilities: *Toro: This robot is pretty simple to redesign given that Toro is also a flipper and more square. Simply add armor around the edges and modify the flipper to be more vertical. You can even add fake horns for a bonus touch. Do note that you still won't have the flipping power of the real robot and this is also true with The Matador. *Bite Force: Though Bite Force has a different weapon, its old claw and lifter set-up could be modified from Bronco's flipper. Obviously lots of painting will be required and you won't have a treaded robot unless you're willing to put in the extra time but Bite Force's design is simple enough. *The Matador: This may be the easiest considering Bronco is modeled after The Matador. You'd have an option to pick either the four-wheel or two-wheel design of the robot. *Complete Control: Similar to Bite Force, Complete Control is also possible and you could convert into either the Comedy Central era version or the modern version. The arm will probably have to be attached separately and will likely not be able to lift unless it is tied with the bottom half of the weapon. Trivia *Unlike other BattleBots toys, the remote for this toy does not have an on/off switch. Instead, it has only a sleep mode function that turns off the remote after 2 minutes of inactivity. Additionally, pressing any button on the remote will turn the remote on. *Curiously, in spite of the fact that HEXBUG delayed their release of RC Bronco due to problems with the flipper, Tech4Kids opted to release their version despite the fact that it was unable to even roll the other toys in the range over. In fact, the user has no control over the flipper at all. **Coincidently, both toys were to be based on the same version of Bronco seen on ABC in 2015. Category:BattleBots Merchandise